Migraine Triggers: Emotions

In the first tip in this series, we offered some general suggestions for helping to prevent migraines, including good sleeping and eating habits and exercise. On a more personal level, the key to successful migraine management is to identify the triggers that provoke your headaches and eliminate or minimize them.

Many triggers are emotional. The National Women's Health Resource Center says:

Anticipation, excitement, stress, anxiety, anger and depression are known to trigger migraine attacks. Even "positive" excitement - like a job promotion or a wedding - can provoke a migraine attack. An effective stress management system can help a migraine sufferer prevent or minimize headaches triggered by these factors and can contribute to a sense of overall good health.

In our next tip, more migraine triggers....

- Valerie Ryan

Migraine Triggers: Hormones

In our last tip, we offered some general suggestions for helping to prevent migraines, including good sleeping and eating habits and exercise. On a more personal level, the key to successful migraine management is to identify the triggers that provoke your headaches and eliminate or minimize them.

Some triggers are hormonally-based. The National Women's Health Resource Center says:

The relationship between female hormones and migraine is still unclear. Women may have menstrually related headache - headaches around the time of their menstrual period. The body's fluctuation of estrogen and progesterone appears to be the culprit. But there are no steadfast rules when it comes to hormonal triggers. Taking oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, and even pregnancy, have been blamed for causing severe and frequent migraine attacks. But other women who suffer from migraine say these things improve their condition or make the attacks disappear altogether. Following menopause, when estrogen and other hormone levels decline, women who previously suffered from migraines during their reproductive years may find that their headaches subside completely.

Migraine Prevention

In our last tip, we mentioned that migraine sufferers are genetically predisposed to attacks-in other words, they don't bring on these intense headaches themselves. But while sufferers can't control their predisposition to migraines, they can help to prevent attacks. The National Women's Health Resource Center offers these management strategies:

- adopt regular sleeping habits

- modify eating habits (although most people who have food-induced headaches already know what foods trigger headaches), and avoid those foods.

- take vitamin B2 (to increase riboflavin in the diet) and supplements to increase magnesium levels

- increase exercise, which improves cardiovascular capacity, increases blood flow to the brain, and increase the production of endorphins, naturally occurring painkilling substances which the body produces more of during physical activity.

Beyond these general suggestions, the key to managing migraine headaches is to identify your triggers and avoid them. More in our next tips....

Migraine Triggers: Diet

In the first tip in this series, we offered some general suggestions for helping to prevent migraines, including good sleeping and eating habits and exercise. On a more personal level, the key to successful migraine management is to identify the triggers that provoke your headaches and eliminate or minimize them.

Many triggers are diet-related. The National Women's Health Resource Center says:

Some migraine sufferers have an acute sensitivity to a specific food or foods. Researchers are not certain why particular foods provoke migraine headaches, but they suspect it is because the foods' chemical properties affect the diameter of blood vessels in the brain. Tyramine, for example, a chemical produced in foods from the natural breakdown of the amino acid tyrosine, is widely viewed as a migraine provoker. Tyramine levels increase in some foods when they are aged, fermented or stored for long periods of time. Red wine, aged cheeses and processed meats (like hot dogs and bologna) are good examples. Other common food-related triggers include: champagne; ripened cheeses (cheddar, Stilton, Brie, Camembert); nuts and nut spreads; drinks; sourdough bread; onions; lentils; snow peas; citrus fruits and bananas; sour cream; chocolate; and MSG, the flavor enhancer, found in soups, restaurant food, frozen foods, and potato chips. Additionally, if you're used to caffeinated beverages, foods or painkillers, withdrawal from these substances can trigger a headache, though not necessarily a migraine.

In addition to particular foods, a change in eating patterns can trigger a headache, although not necessarily a migraine. Fasting, missing meals or dieting may also cause low-blood sugar levels, another possible migraine trigger.

Environment

In the first tip in this series, we offered some general suggestions for helping to prevent migraines, including good sleeping and eating habits and exercise. On a more personal level, the key to successful migraine management is to identify the triggers that provoke your headaches and eliminate or minimize them. Some triggers are related to the environment. The National Women's Health Resource Center says:

Altitude changes, excessive light and noise and changes in weather patterns (such as high winds and high humidity) are a few of the many environmental triggers of migraines. Airplane travel is one of the biggest triggers. When cabin pressure is lowered, as it is in the passenger cabin of an airplane, the blood vessels dilate and expand, which may lead to a migraine attack for some people. Bright light, whether from television, a movie screen, or the sun at the beach, may also provoke attacks. Excessive or repetitive noises can also trigger migraine headaches, as well as strong odors (such as cigarette smoke).

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2002

Answers

I believe my homeopath is the main reason I have virtually no migraines any more. However, other things that have helped have been putting a priority on a good night's sleep (which has SO many other benefits) and going off HRT (which I no longer need for the same reasons I'm not getting migraines, e.g., same homeopathic cure).

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2002

I have tried to find a Homeopath near me, so far no luck!

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2002

After reading about the dangers of HRT I tried to cut my dose in half. Bad move. Within 24 hours I was drenched in hot flashes and waking up every few hours. Even though I quickly returned to the regular dosage, I'm still getting flashes and feel weird, INCLUDING a damn migraine this weekend. I'm not sure if the headache was triggered by the HRT screw-up or an allergy because it seemed to start like sinus pain. Whatever, thank God I can take codeine. And did. Me very happy now.

-- Anonymous, August 26, 2002

SAR, if you can find Sheri website, I think she has a list to the NASH (??) homeopaths. Or you could try writing Sheri directly to see if she has any ideas about where else to look.

-- Anonymous, August 26, 2002